Designing the Villages

Earlier this week, we posted information about our source for visual inspiration, de Tresoor. In this article, we’re expanding that vision, and will show you how we are designing the villages and towns that are featured in CotD. The game world of CotD has a wide variety of different areas; from villages to harbors to swamps and even forrests. We wanted to make sure that we had one consistent ‘language’ that describes all these areas, but aspects that would make them unique and interesting to visit at the same time.

village asset sheets

The way we approached this task is by listing all the ideas we had for buildings, props and vegetation that would occur in the villages. In this article, we’re talking about the villages located on the plains and coasts, but without an harbor. So these would be the most primitive environments of the game, showing farmers on their lands and small towns with buildings made from wood and loam.

village props

Items you see are everyday objects that would be used to work on the land, or carry produce or good around the town or to the next city. We wanted each town to have a small market that we could use as a square, and have specific ‘feature’ buildings like churches from the corresponding town of which we knew were there at the time. In our next item, we will cover buildings from all the different areas in the game, so that you are able to compare, and give feedback (it’s much welcomed!).